Théodore Géricault (1791 - 1824)

Théodore Géricault, The Raft of the Medusa, 1819

On July 5, 1816 the French naval frigate Medusa ran aground off the West African coast. Approx 150 seamen and soldiers crowded onto a raft to be towed by officers in a boat – unable to make headway the raft was cut adrift. The castaways were subjected to storms, starvation, dehydration, cannibalism, and madness. Few survived.